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“Life is an adventure” - Gary Thompson
In this interview, I had the pleasure to speak with one of the most optimistic individuals on the planet, Gary Thompson.
Gary is the Vice President of Clinical Research at Abbott Vascular. In this interview, Gary shares a ton of valuable information on career choices, his #1 advice for all managers, and the relationship between money and happiness.
In his free time, Gary loves to sail and is a proud owner of two sailboats. We discuss how sailing ...

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“It’s important to make things clear and also look at it from the lens of public health not just from the lens of business.” - David Rutledge
“Don’t let the place you begin dictate the place you end up” - David Rutledge
My guest on today’s podcast is David Rutledge. David is a Regulatory Affairs Director at Abbott Vascular.
David is an expert in Clinical Evaluation Plans (CEP) and Clinical Evaluation Reports (CER) which form the foundation of medical product ...

Who's Who In Clinical Research
Almost everyone I’ve met in clinical research has accidentally discovered this hidden profession. Your interest in science and medicine somehow got you involved in clinical research and clinical trial management. But didn’t you wish you had a crystal clear understanding of “Who’s Who In Clinical Research?”
That’s when this post come handy.
Clinical Research is sometimes also referred as Medical Affairs or Clinical Affairs. Aside from the naming nuances, ...

As clinical research professionals, we often hear about GCP, HIPAA, compliance, monitoring, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), so on and so forth.
When trying to secure that next promotion, we often focus on our clinical research skills: the ability to enroll a trial fast, locking that trial database on schedule or passing the FDA audit.
Rarely we take a step back and think about soft skills. Today soft skills are more important than ever. It would be too dangerous to ignore them.
In ...

Have you been tasked to develop clinical trial budget? Well you're in luck because I’m going to share everything you need to know about clinical trial costs.
Clinical trial budgets are often put together in haste. The focus is on getting the product to market as quickly as possibly. Or revenues and profits.
Developing a clinical trial budget can be a confusing exercise for sponsors and CROs. There are too many cost variables to account for.
This post covers the key cost drivers for ...

Getting response from clinical site coordinators can be a constant battle of repeated follow-ups.
There are many reasons why site coordinators don’t respond or are slow to respond. Today site coordinators receive continuous stream of communication from multiple sponsors and CROs. This communication comes through emails, phone calls, in-person visits and other internet-enabled mediums. Every clinical trial requires site coordinators to get trained on trial-specific systems.
Site ...

You are interested in get a job a clinical research associate. Employers are looking for “experienced” clinical research associates. You can’t get experience if no one is wanting to hire you for the role and people who are hiring are looking for individuals with experience. Given that there is no “clinical research” major at colleges and universities, it can be quite challenging to get academic experience as well.
In this post, I’ll share with you how you can get that clinical research ...

Whether you are a leading a project with a team that doesn’t report to you or a research manager leading a team of research coordinators, clinical research associates, biostatisticians, data managers or project managers, you’ve probably been in situations where work was not done as planned or expected.
Deliverables don’t get completed primarily due to (1) lack of clarity on the outcome expected, (2) inadequate amount of time allocated for the project or task or (3) a team member was ...

When you are managing a clinical research project, you are bound to experience “good times” and “bad times”. Clinical research projects are always evolving. Somedays a project will be moving forward smoothly and on other days things might be quite challenging. Like anything in life, unexpected issues do come up. A Wartime General mindset can help you deal with things when the work is challenging.
In this post, I’ll share four ways on how to become a Wartime General.
Take Up Challenging ...

I have a confession to make.
Back in 2007 when I joined Abbott Vascular as a Clinical Project Manager, I did not know to write emails. The core function of a project manager is being able to communicate well with all stakeholders. And here I was, afraid of typing and sending emails. I procrastinated for hours to perfect the wording of my email. It wasn’t that I was not familiar with the clinical trial space. I was just afraid and unsure on how to communicate effectively via emails.
My ...